The Who It's Hard original version vs. remaster

"A Man is a Man" is a really nice song as well. "

I like that song very much and IMO it may be the best track on the LP.

 

Is there a consensus on this one - original or remaster?...

 

Without ever really comparing sonics, I strongly prefer the original over the remix. I don't like what they did to Eminence Front in the re-mix--I'm used to the vocal flub, and I don't like how they buried the keyboards in favor of a stronger bassline. This is really about original vs re-mix. As was said above, there is no digital remaster of the orig mix.

 

Sorry, you're quite right - I should've made that distinction.

Okay, so the original CD (which features the original mix) is preferable sonically to the remix? Cool.

 

My Japanese target is the bomb! After QUAD, BY NUMBERS, SELL OUT, WHO'S NEXT and TOMMY it's the Who album I play the most.

 

Okay, I recently got confused by a later (but "un-remastered") CD of It's Hard that I have. I have four copies of this album which have three different sets of peak levels among them:

Polydor 800 106-2 (West Germany PDO)
Warner Bros. 23731-2 (West Germany for USA target)
90.8 / 73.4 / 72.7 / 73.2 / 72.7 / 83.5 / 75.7 / 67.1 / 72.3 / 81.2 / 74.4 / 71.3

Warner Bros. 23731-2 (Japan for USA target)
85.8 / 79.2 / 79.0 / 80.4 / 76.7 / 77.6 / 77.2 / 66.9 / 68.9 / 100.0 / 71.7 / 66.6

MCA MCAD-25986 (USA)
70.6 / 62.8 / 66.3 / 70.5 / 66.5 / 66.6 / 66.8 / 56.4 / 60.2 / 73.3 / 61.5 / 57.5​

I can't say there is a striking difference between them (with regard to the sound). I will have to sit down and compare them carefully. I find it interesting that the MCA disc is the quietest of the three.

By the way, the MCA disc has the older MCA RECORDS logo, not the more crisp modern looking one.

 

I really like my old W. German, 800 106-2, Polydor pressing. No mention of PDO in the hub or on the artwork of the one I have.

 

So when the heck is Classic Records going to get around to releasing Face Dances and It's Hard?

 

I used my hi-fi stereo VCR. Use to archive lots of radio shows using that sucker. Sadly, all lost now. I did make some cassette dubs of these shows, including The Who in Toronto, The Stones (Still Life Tour era) and the early Beatles On The Beeb re-broadcasts. Ron

 

Athena was wrote during the Who by Number demo period.

 

sounds like we need the original version with the longer ending, and then we'll have the ultimate version!

 

I was doing a bit of comparison with headphones last night, and noticed some very slight anomalies that weren't consistent. On "Eminence Front," the bass downbeat at the start of the second measure in the intro has a curious kind of glitch -- a tiny bit of distortion or something -- on the WG version but not the two others. I also hear a bit of a tape glitch on the Japan and USA versions near the beginning of "Cooks County" -- again, very subtle. Sounds like the level in one channel drops slightly for a second.

The USA version also seems to have a touch more treble. It's subtle enough that I think it could be due to either a cleaner tape generation or just EQ. It's probably better to not linger on that until I've listened to all of them on the hi-fi, though.

 

What should I expect to pay for the original Japan Target version? Thanks in advance. JD

 

No, that's not true. It was written in late 1979 or early 1980 after an encounter with actress Theresa Russell. He fell in love with her, and he wrote the song after being rejected by her. Townshend later changed the tile to "Athena". The song was demo'd in 1980:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItpasoGRFoc&feature=fvw

I prefer Pete's demo. There's some great rhythm playing, as well as some really jazzy licks going on.

 

Officially released on "Scoop 3" CD2 track # 14

 

I got mine for $5.

 

IT'S HARD..... it's hard to listen to this album...... and I'm a HUGE Who fan.... If early 80's WHO is what you want to hear, I prefer CHINESE EYES, TOO LATE THE HERO, McVICAR (yes, I know they are WHO member solo albums) to IT'S HARD. The gigs I saw early in the 'farewell tour' were great (first two nights) and the songs came to life in a live setting (title track, Eminence Front, Dangerous, Cry if you Want, even A Man is a Man) but the album sounds like a band out of steam. And by the time they got to Toronto three months later, they were a band out of steam. Watching the video a week after it happened (a friend in Canada sent me a copy he taped off the pay per view broadcast) I, and friends who were watching, were all asking "what the hell happened between September and December"?

That said, I have heard both mixes and prefer the original WB vinyl.

just my two cents opinion...

 

I have a collectioon of demos from the mid 70s which include an instrumental which developed into Athena?

 

I hear you. It's Hard has its moments, but there are simply too many uninspired moments for this album to generate lift-off. That being said, I am very fond a few tracks, but it is a very difficult album to listen to cover to cover.

 

I remember hearing Athena on the radio for the first time, and then I read the 5-star review in Rolling Stone. Of course I had to buy the record after that! I still enjoy the album . . . but not 5 stars worth.

 

Just bought a West German Red-Faced Polydor label Vinyl press for $3.00. Beats my WB pressing without a hitch. I am like many who thinks this album can be tough to accept overall, but knowing that I think it obviously helps to have the best pressing CD or vinyl to enjoy this effort by The Who.

 

"Athena" was about Theresa Russell.

 

The SHM-cd sounds lovely. Original mixes. Flat transfer.

 

I too bought the record based on Rolling Stone's rave review. It wasn't a huge let down but I thought it should have been a Townsend solo and not a Who album. It just didn't work as a Who album for me.

 

Talk about an "eminence front"...